A random selection of facts about the Street
culled from here and there…
1 The land on which Temple Street was built was previously farmland, and is named after The Temple on
Montpelier Road, home of property developer and politician Thomas Read Kemp
(1782 – 1844). It now houses the Brighton and Hove High School.
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| The Temple, built in 1819. Thomas Kemp moved out in 1827, after which The Temple became a boys' school |
2 The deeds of the dwellings in the street prevent the
occupants from running a disorderly house (According to Wikipedia: a charge
of keeping a disorderly house is the typical charge against one accused of
maintaining a brothel, and as brothel-keeping is one of the most common causes
for the charge of keeping a disorderly house, "disorderly house" is
something of a euphemism for brothel in the English legal community).
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| A Disorderly House |
3 At number 12, which had a passage through to Borough
Street, horses were not allowed to be kept. There used to be horses in Borough
Street. People who once lived at number 12 suggested, ‘if you keep our horses,
we could run your disorderly house’. By the 1890s the passage led directly into the Borough Tavern, a small pub that used to trade at 39 Borough Street.
4 There were a number of
wells in the street. If a householder finds one it has to be reported it to the
council. About 30 years ago, when number 4 was being renovated, a 17th century
well was found under the kitchen floorboards.
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| A useful well in the backyard |
5 According to a local
historian, at some time during the 19th century, numbers 3, 4 and 5 formed one
establishment used for training female domestic servants under the patronage of
the Queen Dowager (Queen Adelaide 1792–1849). Number 33 was the Brighton Refuge for Destitute Females in the 1850s.
6 An organ builder lived and
worked at number 3 and was reputed to build his organs in his cellar. Many of the early residents of
Temple Street were dressmakers and milliners.
7 The street also housed a
maker of cricket balls and Number 1 was a butchers during the 1920s. The
cellar is sloping to drain off the blood.
8 Enid Gray, the
Street’s eldest resident, whose life story you’ll find on this site, married
into a family that had lived in Temple Street for generations. Her
mother-in-law Winnie Whitlock was born in 1893 at no 46. Her father, William
Mortimer Whitlock was living at 39 Temple St in 1891 (occupation ‘dancing
master’) and in 1901 was a ‘decorative japanner’. Winnie used to go to school
through a twitten opposite 37 Temple Street, to a school in Borough Street (just
up from estate agents Fox and Son and now an office building).
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| St Stephen's Church of England School in Borough Street c1860 |
9 The corner
shop opposite The Temple Bar, recently vacated by Classical Lighting – after possibly Brighton's longest ever closing down sale – has been
a rather swish car showroom in its time.
It opened up as a branch of Caffynns in 1920.
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| 1924 – Caffynns car showroom on the corner of Temple Street and Western Road |
10 There are six Grade II listed buildings in the street– – numbers 2, 29, 3, 4, 5 and 31.
